Interim chairman Paul Hornby would be prepared to back manager Ian Evatt if he wanted to bring in players to strengthen his squad at Barrow AFC in the weeks ahead.

Evatt spoke about the need to bring in ‘more steel’ in the wake of the Bluebirds’ 4-2 defeat at Harrogate Town two weeks ago, with him worried his players had become a soft touch.

Admittedly, his squad was being stretched to the limit by injuries at the time, with eight players missing the match that followed, against Ebbsfleet United.

The two-week break from competitive action has at least given some bodies the chance to recover, with striker Jacob Blyth making his comeback in last Friday’s friendly against the club’s under-21 team.

Hornby said: “We’ll see what Ian says – he’s been pretty open with us about how he sees things.

“Me and Ian chat fairly regularly and the good thing at the moment is that there are a lot of good players coming back from injury.

“Sometimes when you get players back, it is like getting a new signing we had eight eight out for the game at Ebbsfleet and some of those are slowly coming back now.

“Hopefully, because we’re in the middle of this two-week break, it’s not a bad time for Ian to get players fresh again. We’ve actually had a decent conversation to see where these guys are in two weeks, so things are going well from that point of view.”